THE PUBLIC BE PLEASED

"Give 'em what they want, as Cleopatra used to say"--thus ends Mr. A. H. Woods' article in the New York Tribune telling why he produces bedroom farces. According to Mr. Woods the free and breezy plays are what the public wants, and that is why so many are written and produced. Even Shakespeare, says the modern concocter of the tired business man's farcical cocktails, wrote to please the public taste of his time. If Shakespeare were living and were to come to Mr. Woods with the manuscript of "Macbeth", the latter states that he would say, "Bill, they don't want that kind of stuff. Take out the idea and sell what's left to the movies. They'll dress Lady Macbeth up in $100,000 worth of gowns and advertising will put the thing over.'

In other words, the "dear public" does not want to pay to see a drama depicting life as analyzed by a philosophical playwright whose uniqueness has made his name and memory immortal. We study his plays in college, but seldom see them produced because "the public does not want that sort of thing." It would be interesting to make this experiment; obtain the best of Shakspearean actors for the production of the immortal's plays with the money sunk into the elaborate Broadway revue as a working capital for scenery costumes and modern theatrical appliances, and tour the country as frequently as do the modern bedroom farces. Perhaps the public would want more of Shakespeare then.

Mr. Woods overlooks the fact that the playwright, the author, the poet, the newspaper, the musician--all shape public taste, thought and opinion. No one would begrudge any playwright for making a living by writing bedroom farces, if that be his ambitions, but there are many who object to hear the declaration that these are what they, a goodly part of the public, want. The American theatre-goer has had no real opportunity to choose between the Shakespearean drama and the modern farcical acrobatics. It is inaccurate to say that one thing is preferred to another unless both have been equally and fairly presented for choice. Unfortunately the public's taste is the result of the stuff with which it has been fed.